CHERUB:Second Chance
by football.crazy
Summary: This is the story of Ebony. She's tough, fit and clever but has a quick temper.. will it help her or will it just land her into deeper trouble then she's allready in?
1. In Trouble Again

Chapter One

"Ebony!" A voice screamed, waking Ebony Greenhayle from the dream she was having about skiing in Italy.

"Ebony did you nick the six pack of beers which we're under my bed?" Ebony's fifteen year old brother Sam, stormed into the room, looking for a fight, he had been out till three AM doing goodness knows what and had quite a major hang over. A strong smell of BO and cigarettes filled the room.

"What the hell have you been smoking, bro?" Ebony asked her brother, holding her nose.

"None of you're business… now where are my beers?" Sam demanded pinning his younger sister to her bed. Ebony fed up with being accused of stealing his stupid beers, leapt up and gave her brother a swift punch in the kidneys. Sam lurched backwards clutching his stomach. He was in total agony, but was trying not to let his little sister see. Being hammered by his twelve-year-old sister was not exactly the ideal start to the day.

Ebony smiled to herself, at twelve years old she was already a very adept fighter and could take on kids her brothers age. Sam retreated back to his bedroom seriously pissed off at his sister.

"Samuel Greenhayle! Why the hell aren't you up yet? Do you want to fail you're GCSE's boy? do you want to end up like you're good for nothing father? Drunk and living in a place even crapper then here." Casey Greenhayle shouted at her son. Sam's father had walked out before he was even born, but came back once every few years too see his son and try and get money of his ex-wife.. Clutching his sore stomach from Ebony's punch told his Mum with plenty of swear words that there was no way in hell that he was going to school today. Ebony could guess what the outcome was going to be. Sam would eventually give in and go to school, he'd get suspended for starting a fight or getting busted for smoking on site and get to skip school for the next few weeks. And then the whole cycle would start all over again. Sighing at the total patheticness of her brother Ebony shoved on her battered up converse skate shoes that had once belonged to Sam on, grabbed her skateboard and headed down town towards school.

Freddy Hook was one of the hardest guys in year eight. No one was brave enough to mess with him. Freddy was one of those complete boneheads who got a kick out of winding kids up, he was a total bully and after putting up with being in the same class as him for two whole years Ebony was beginning to get seriously pissed off with the way he treated people. It was period three and absolutely bucketing down outside, Ebony sat inside the dingy Math's classroom next to her mates Harry and Lena bored out of her mind. Freddy Hook was also bored with Maths and flicked bits of snot and rubber bands at people. His favourite target was Melissa – a quite girl who was a refugee from some war torn country. After watching ten minutes of Freddy hissing racist comments and flicking things at Melissa (who by this time was almost in tears.) Ebony was fed up.

"What the hell is you're problem?" Ebony shouted at Freddy, the whole class looking on in anticipation of a fight. The teacher Mr Bryn was a wimpy looking, old guy who had no-idea how to control kids. He shouted at Ebony to sit down, but his voice was so quite and he sounded so scared that Ebony just laughed in his face.

"I will sit down, Sir when Freddy Hook stops being a complete racist dickhead." Ebony said as calmly as she could in her new found rage.

"Could be standing a long time." Harry one of Ebony's best friend commented cheekily. Mr Bryn, by this time was quite frightened, he had never been that tough and didn't want to get involved in the fight so went and hid in the stationary cupboard.

"What the hell was that for you little bitch?" Freddy demanded facing Ebony. If it was a guy Freddy would have punched him straight out but because she was a girl he thought words would be just as sufficient, realising this just made Ebony madder and so it was her that punched first. The other kids in the class cheered. Freddy got a black eye from the first punch but was determined not to be beaten by a girl so lashed out trying to hit Ebony in the stomach. Being of a lighter frame and having a quick mine Ebony predicted his move and dived out of the way at the last second. Freddy had put so much force and momentum into the kick that he feel over. Ebony recognised her chance and punched her opposition once again – this time right in the stomach. Satisfied that Freddy wouldn't be giving her or her mates any more trouble Ebony let out a big breath and breathed in again. The taste of victory was defiantly sweet.

"Ebony Greenhayle the head master wishes to speak to you." Ms Haggis the school secretary said in her usual wingy voice. Ebony hadn't even noticed her in the classroom. How much had she seen? She asked herself. Victory didn't seem so sweet anymore. What was her Mum going to say? She had seen what had happened to Sam whenever he got in trouble at school, her Mum totally blew her stack every time her brother got suspended. Ebony's brain seemed to be asking a million questions all at once but she didn't have the answer to anything.

"What am I in trouble for?" Ebony tried to gain information from the unsmiling secretary, even though she knew very well why she was in shit. But Ms Haggis was not in the mood for questions.

"I don't know, I'm just the secretary but the head looked pretty serious, ya must of done something well bad." The secretary's comment's where not exactly doing anything to lighten Ebony's mood.


	2. Alone

Chapter 2

"Ah Ebony dear, please come in and sit down." The head teacher said in a calm voice, (though it was obvious that she was anything but calm) when Ebony knocked on the door of the head's office shaking slightly. Ebony had been in trouble a few times, so was certainly not expecting this. She knew that something weird was defiantly going on. Since when did the head ask you to sit down and call you "dear" after you punched someone? Ebony sat in silence, the head peered at her and felt sorry for her.

_Poor kid. Dad in prison, Brother heading that way, and now this. _There was another knock at the door.

"Hello Sam please sit down." The head nodded at Sam Greenhayle motioning to the chair beside Ebony. Sam eyed her up and down suspiciously. This wasn't how the head of Planet Comprohemsive usually treated him when he entered her office.

"The hospital just rang….it's about you're Mum…. " Ms Igantosh started off – saying the words which cause more devastation then telling a class of year seven's that they have a maths test tomorrow.

"She is… she well…. Well she took… it was aspirins… I'm afraid she is not going to recover… she OD ed. I'm really sorry." The head teacher said the words that where to change the Greenhayle's life forever. She did not need to say anything else, Ebony and Sam knew exactly what had happened to their remaining parent. The initial shock lasted for about a minute then Ebony asked the question which was plaguing their minds as Sam's father had disappeared and Ebony's dad was in prison for another twenty years . "What's going to happen to us?"

"So Ebony, Sam it says in your Mum's will that automatic custody of you too should go to you're Grandmother however there's just a little glitch in that plan."

"What's up with Violet?" Sam asked, concern filling his voice. Sam was particular close to the kids rather eccentric and dynamic Grandmother – or Violet, as she liked her two grandchildren to call her.

"She's been arrested for smashing up the limo of a certain pop star called Amarra Starville." The social worker clicked her teeth together as she said the words, Lizza (which was her name) was getting rather flustered by this time – yet another lot of kids without anyone to look out for them. Ebony cracked up, she hated Amara Starville and all her botox injections. Amara was known to be on drugs and her music was all just fancy audio effects and had party tendencies that even Paris Hilton couldn't beat. Sam gave his sister a look as he saw their young social worker shake her head, but Ebony was beyond help.

"Ebony, I don't think that is very appropriate behaviour young lady, what your Grandmother did is a serious criminal offence. Please behave properly. Now…" The social worker turned towards Sam. "Any other realities? At all."

"There's my Dad, but we haven't heard from him for a few years and he's a bit of a drinker."

"No good… any aunties, uncles anyone like that?"

"We only have one Aunty and she's in the Amazon studying the rain forest." Ebony informed the social worker of my Auntie's rather unusual circumstances.

She shook her head. No. No good. Lizza put on a grim smile

"Looks like you too are going to go to a home, " The social worke eyed the two children up and down and remembered how she had felt twenty years earlier when her parent's had died in a fatal car accident. "I'm really sorry but there's no other option."

Lizza drove the siblings to their old house to pick up their personal belongings. Ebony held back the tears as they pulled up in front of the house she her Mum and Sam had lived in for all her life. It didn't seem like home anymore, even though everything was exactly as they had left it in the morning. Lizza handed Ebony and Sam several big black litterbags each. Ebony, still trying to contain her tears entered the bedroom which she had slept in almost every night of her twelve years, she looked around at all the stuff trying to work out what she wanted to keep and what she wouldn't mind losing forever. She started on clothes and trainers. As she picked her clothes up she realised how little she had – couple of pairs of jeans, manu shirt, some pairs of trackies, england shirt, athletic shorts most of which had belonged to Sam at one stage, a collection of strappy tops and t-shirt's all baggy and mostly boys clothes, 2 pairs of board shorts, several hoodies, about ten baseball caps and not much else besides that. She tipped all her clothes into one bag added her five pairs of trainers, football boots and flipflops. then looked around at all the other stuff. Ebony chucked in her skateboard, Play Station, Nintendo DS, mobile, iPod, photo album, football, a soft toy Dalmatian which her Dad had given her before he got sent away to prison, some CDs, DVD's and video games and a few other bits and pieces to remind her of her Mum and life before she got taken into care into the bag. On her way out she saw the skirt lying on the floor where she had thrown it at her Mother. This set her off crying – Ebony was usually pretty tough but her Mum dieing had quite a bit of impact on her – as one would imagine. Ebony hated skirts and dresses for that matter, unlike most other girls her age she would rather wear football shorts and her brother's old clothes. Casey had brought the denim mini skirt as an attempt to make her one and only daughter act more like a girl. Ebony had been totally outraged at the time, but now she picked up the skirt and shoved it into one of the bulging black bags.

"Here's your beers bro." Ebony greeted Sam by chucking the six-pack of beers that she had stolen from his room the previous night when their life had been normal. Sam growled at his sister. Any other time he would have hit her one for stealing his beer but this was not any time. Instead Sam did a gesture which Ebony would never had thought he would do, he pulled his little sister tears and all into a hug.

Lizza drove the car through an area in the middle of London on an estate even crappier then the Planet Estate that Ebony and Sam had lived on. There wasn't really that much to it, most of the houses had been condemned years earlier and graffiti was on every available surface. Teenagers roamed the streets in gangs, chucking bricks at cars and fighting each other, all the doors had triple locks and any non-bogan looking people hurried quickly about their business as if even standing on the street for too long was dangerous. Ebony sighed and let a tear fall for her dead mother, even if her death and been her fault. Before Ebony had been to numb and too shocked to cry or really feel the absence of her mother, but now sitting in the social worker's car driving through this desolate urban estate Ebony felt more alone then she ever had in her life.


	3. Home, Sweet Home

Chapter 3

"Here we are, you're new home." Lizza parked the car next to a crumbling building with rude words spray painted all over it. There was an old sign with a green smiley face and the words Harmony House – The happiest Home in the country. Harmony house didn't look very happy or harmonious to Ebony. Angry at how her life had changed so drastically in the last few hours she kicked out at the sign, knocking it clean out of the ground, Sam stared at his little sister and felt a rush of love for her. He soon ruined the moment by shoving her through the door.

"Kylie!" Lizza shouted into the corridor. It was coloured a horrible green like the colour of vomit and smashed glass and cigarette ends lined the flood. A woman who looked like the kind of person who smoked hundreds of fags a day eventually emerged from the end of it, looking like she'd just got out of bed and had a major hang over.

"Hiiii Lizza, new blood is it?"

"Yes, I phoned an hour ago, I spoke to Jerry. The names are Ebony and Samuel Greenhayle."

"Jerry?" The woman shouted down the corridor. A slightly more respectable looking figure appeared wearing a chef's hat and a old tattered apron.

"Yes Kylie what's up? Oh I see the two new kids have arrived, come with me and I we'll sort out rooms for you." Jerry said to Ebony and Sam.

"Ok guys I will leave you too it, Ebony, Sam I will come and check up on you in a few weeks to see how you are settling in, I hope you enjoy you're new home."

"Name's Callie." A sulky and hard looking girl about Ebony's age stood in the doorway. She had her hands in the pockets of her Lonsdale hoddie and a bad girl look on her face. She also looked extremely pissed of about something.

"Cool… I'm Ebony."

The girl didn't say anything at all. So much for a friendly roommate Ebony thought.

"So what's this place like then?"

Callie let out a laugh. "What does it look like to you?"

"Total hellhole." Ebony said, figuring that if Callie was offended by Ebony dissing her home that Ebony could win the fight.

"You're right there… you know what I think that we might just get along." Callie said, showing a tiny bit of warmth.

"Oh yeah.. so have you got a TV in here."

"Yeah. Saved up for two years to get it and it's crap. Hard when you're on like three quid a week."  
"Can I use the PlayStation on it?"

"Yeah, whatever."

Ebony smiled, Callie seemed pretty cool and on the same wavelength as her, which was hard to find in girls her age.

The food was totally crap, it was even worse then the school canteen food at Planet Comprehensive, mushy peas, mashed potato and sausages that tasted like a cross in between pork and chicken and bacon fat. Ebony sat on a table with Callie and another boy called Michel. No one said that much apart from to complain about how much the food sucked. Ebony found it really strange being here in the children's home. It felt like a dream. Ebony was almost positive that it was some horrible nightmare. All she wanted was to wake up in the morning, shout at her Mum and Brother, go to school, not listen in class, muck around with her friends, play some footy in the park and play on the PlayStation in the sitting room back in their flat, while Casey cooked dinner and Sam roamed the streets with his gang. Sam sat at a separate table with a bunch of boys – most who where wearing heavy metal t-shirts, had lots of piercings and skinhead haircuts. Ebony couldn't manage more then a few forkfuls of the disgusting mush that the home called dinner so retired to her room after eating just a tiny bit.

Back in the girl's bedroom, Ebony sat down in front of Callie's television and picked up the PlayStation console, she looked around the room looking for the black bin bag which she had left un-opened as that was the place that she had packed her games. _That's funny…._ Ebony thought to herself as she saw the games scattered all over the floor. Ebony shook her head, _Must have opened it without realising_ she thought as she surveyed the collection. Ebony picked up all the games and stacked them next to the telly looking for her favourite game – Grand Theft Auto III. It was not there. Ebony lay down next to the stack and read the names of the games – Ratchet & Clank 2, FIFA football 2007, Prince Of Persia – The Sands of Time…. She read but where was Grand Theft Auto III? It was then that she saw the strand of hair that sat on top of the stack. Orange hair. Suddenly it all came together in her mind – there was only one kid with orange hair in the Home. His name was Robby Jackson and he was one of the hardest kids in Harmony House – and that's pretty damn tough. Ebony realised that he must have snuck into the room and gone through her bags, he then must have heard a noise or something and forgotten to cover his tracks. He opened the Ratchet & Clank 2 cover and shut a strand of his hair in there. Then grabbing the nearest game which would have been Grand Auto Theft 3 got the hell out of there.

Ebony considered her next move. She knew that Robby was about fourteen and could probably beat her in a fight. She also knew that Robby wouldn't be expecting a little twelve year old girl whose Mum has recently died to notice that one of her many PS2 games is missing let alone hammer him for taking it. Any other girl would have gone to their older brother – but Ebony wasn't any other girl.

Taking a deep breath, Ebony knocked on the door of the room that Robby shared with his ten year old brother, Colin. She heard the sound of the bolt clicking as Robby opened his door. When he saw that no-one stood outside started cursing someone called Kevin. As he was about to close it Ebony leapt at the door, jamming her Nike trained foot in the closing gap between the door. Just as Ebony had hoped Robby didn't bother to lock the series of bolts on the door. Ebony heard the familiar music from Grand Theft Auto III start up again and paused for a second, considering when the best time to pounce would be.


	4. Revenge

Callie crept up on Ebony as quietly as she could. She tapped her on the shoulder lightly, Ebony whirled around thinking it was one of the house parents. She racked her mind for an excuse about why she had her foot in Colin and Robby's door. Ebony was quite shocked to see her room mate standing there.

"Hey psycho, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Getting my PS2 game back – that dickhead Robby Jackson nicked it from our room."

"How'd you know?" Callie asked with a lot of interest.

'He left a orange hair in one of the game covers, I knew it had to be him as he's the only kid here with orange hair, I'm going in there to beat him up and get us back the game."

"Are you completely insane? He's like fourteen and built like a rugby player."

"I can take care of my self, thank you very much." Ebony retorted annoyed by her room-mates distain.

"Ok then, but don't come running to me when you get killed." Callie walked off, Ebony picked her moment and stormed into the room – fired by the extra anger which Callie had made her feel.

"Give it to us, Jackson." Ebony said in the same calm, no nonsense voice she had used only this morning on Mr Bryn the Math's teacher. Robby jumped about ten feet in the air and turned round to face the mysterious person who had somehow managed to get into his room without him knowing. He had the shock of his life when his life when he saw the twelve-year-old girl whose game he had nicked and was playing stood in the doorway.

"No way, little girl now get lost before I have to hurt you."

Most other twelve year old girls would have been seriously freaked out by Robby's response but not Ebony. By this time she was seriously pissed off at Robby and his thieving ways. She lashed out at him – using the hard, forceful punch in the stomach, which was her signature fighting move. Robby was too stunned that a girl who was two whole years younger then him and he had written of for being a complete idiot had knocked him down to even attempt retaliation. Seizing the moment, Ebony opened up the PlayStation and grabbed the silvery shinny disk which was her fave game out of the drive, she grabbed the box and charged out of the room at full speed, thinking about grabbing a few of Robby's games as revenge. Callie who was spying on the action from the door bolted back to the room and had settled herself on the floor in front of the telly before her roommate had even noticed the room. Callie smiled to herself. _Looks like I'll be getting out of this recruitment mission pretty soon! _

"Hello Marcus. I think I've found someone suitable. Twelve, girl, just took on a fourteen year old guy on her own." Callie spoke into the mobile – talking to the recruitment mission controller Marcus Evan's. She described what she had witnessed in Robby Jackson's bedroom and what she had read about in Ebony's privet file.

"Give her the injection, I will send a car. Well done, you will be pulled out as soon as this girl decides whether or not to become a CHERUB. See you on campus." The jolly mission controller hung up the phone with a click. Another new CHERUB, Zara Asker was going to be happy with him – three new CHERUBS in one week!


	5. Um, We Kind Of Woke Up Here

Chapter Five

Ebony blinked once, shut her eyes tight in confusion and opened them again out of curiosity. Where the hell was she? She was in a large carpeted room in a queen sized bed – a million miles away from her tiny cramped bed back at the children's home where she had fallen asleep. Ebony asked herself if she was going insane or still dreaming and then her curious nature took over and she lept out of bed – only to discover something else! The tattered Metalica t-shirt which she had woren to bed, the previous night had gone and she was completely naked!

She looked around the room for something to wear and soon found them. An orange t-shirt which had a picture of a naked angle firing an arror and the words CHERUB on it was lying on the bedside table along with green boots which looked like the kind of thing that the army might wear and some combat trousers. This world she had woken up in was so strange. It was like the time she got punched in the face and hit her head on the floor – she'd blacked out and woken up thinking that she was dreaming, only the past didn't seem to be coming back to her, she couldn't remember anything from the point that she fell asleep listening to her iPod the previous night.

Still confused about what the hell was going on Ebony put on the clothes (well she wasn't going to wonder around naked and couldn't think of another option.) and opened the door of the large room. A group of kids, who looked about Ebony's age where walking along the corridors laughing and chatting with to each other.

"Oi Kyle you complete fag, I've had to run forty punishment laps because of you…"

They all gave Ebony a knowing smile. The boy who had just been complaining about punishment laps – whatever they where, caught her eye for a moment and they held gaze. His friend - a Chinese looking girl with short black hair shook him slightly and the contact was lost.

"Come on James." She pulled him away.

More kids hurried past Ebony all dressed in the same clothes to her, but wearing different coloured tops.

"Hey I'm new here where am I supposed to go?" Ebony asked the blonde, teenage guy who looked about fourteen who was approaching with a girl gripping his arm – presumably his girlfriend.

"Can't talk to orange" He said, with a evil looking grin. What the hell was that about? Ebony asked herself. The girl didn't speak but pointed towards a lift, which was just opening. Ebony dived into it and tried to ask where to go – but once again she got "Can't talk to orange."

Ebony got "Can't talk to orange" Three more times before someone pushed her out of the lift. She looked around, she appeared to be at a reception of some sort – it looked like the one at the fancy hotel that her second cousin's Maria's wedding had been in. She finally saw another kid wearing an orange shirt, and decided to approach him, as all the other kids seemed to be wearing grey, navy or black ones.

"Hey.." She greeted him, marching up with her confidence glowing.

'Hi." The guy said, saying the first word that wasn't "Can't talk to orange." that Ebony had heard for what seemed like forever.

"You know you're the first person who actually talked to me here.. can you tell me where I am?" She said, desperate for a normal conversation – normality in this strange world she had awoken in.

"I'd like to, but the thing is I don't know.. I woke up here and no-one would talk except for to say 'can't talk to orange." And I don't know what the hell is going on." The boy replied, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Come on, let's go and ask that lady over there, maybe she will say something else." Ebony replied, smiling at him.

'Hey… um we kind of woke up here… and yeah what the heck is going on?" The guy said to the lady behind the counter – hoping he didn't sound like too much of a psychopath as the girl he had met a few minutes ago was pretty damn fit in his books and he didn't want to make an ass of himself.

"Hello Ebony and Max, Doctor McAfferety would like to see you in his office. This way." She told the two kids, pointing to the left.


	6. More Then Just A School

**Authors note!**

**Sorry I haven't updated in AGES!!! I came to a bit of a story writing rut and yeah I've been really busy with school and stuff. Oh yeah and sorry this chapter isn't exactly very exciting – it's more of a build up chapter! The next one will hold lots of interesting developments!! So yeah please keep reading and reviewing! **

Chapter 6

Max hesitated, Ebony sighed and lead the way. She was not a very shy person, and found it hard to relate to people who where. She opened the door, without bothering to knock.

"What the hell is going on?" Ebony practically screamed as she saw an oldish man sitting behind a large wooden desk.

He chuckled, in all his years he had never seen such a dramatic entrance from a possible recruit.

"Yes, I suppose I better explain, sit down, sit down." Ebony pulled out a comfy looking chair and sat down.

Max still stood at the door – completely blown away by both the girl, and the attitude.

"My name is Docter McAfferety – I am chairman here at Cherub."

"What the hell is Cherub and why the hell are am I here?" Ebony asked, any respect which she had for adults had long vanished after all that had happened to her in the last couple of days. Everything that had happened seemed so un-real. It felt like Ebony was living in a bubble of reality, a dream world.

"Cherub, is a division of British Military Intelligence."

"What? So is it like part of cadets?" Ebony spoke, in her world of estate housing and chip shops, she felt pretty un-intelligent standing in front of this guy.

"So is it like… a boarding school for spy's?" Max, spoke quietly but clearly. He wasn't usually shy like this, not at all. But there was something about this place and this girl that silenced him.

"Yes I guess you could describe it like that. We exclusively take in orphans who had a thirst for excitement and adventure, are intelligent and who can handle complicated situations."

"I think I get it, so you drugged us up and took us to this… cherub place because you think we might want to attend school here?"

Mack chuckled; he always found it rather amusing trying to explain about Military Intelligence and Cherub to new recruits.

"Cherub is not just a school, girl. It's much more then that."

About half an hour later after Mack had convinced Ebony and Max that they weren't in a "special" school for "special troubled children" Ebony and Max where both led out of the office, too do what every CHERUB agent must go through, unless they are recruited from a very young age – the entrance test.


	7. Can't Get You Out Of My Head

James Adams just could not stop thinking about a girl, of course for James this was not, un-normal it was just usually James wasn't thinking of so much a particular girl but of girl body parts and about how far he could get with them. It was different in this case. Because this was a girl like no other – this was a girl called Ebony Greenhayle. It was true that James had only met her a couple of days before, and she was new to CHERUB and hadn't even been through Basic Training, but James could just not get her out of his head. James took off his t-shit and football studs and shin-guards still muddy for the game and lay down on his bed wearing only his south park boxers.

He was in a few confused mood, as he was dating Kerry at the moment, his partner since basic training just more then a year and a half ago now, and things where good. Things where great in fact. Or they had been until Ebony had showed up. James knew that breaking up with Kerry would be very hard, and it would be final and possibly dangerous considering her superior skill in martial arts. And for what? James didn't even know if Ebony liked him, or whatever.

James sighed and got up out of bed, heading over to the mini fridge and getting out the king sized tub of ice cream which he had managed to bribe Kyle into getting for him. James was on a strict diet, after his last medical had proved that he was slightly overweight for boys his age and ice-cream was not supposed to be part of it. He dug out a spoon from underneath a pile of dirty clothes and began to eat.

Meanwhile Ebony was wandering around trying to find her room. She had just run five kilometres, in her free time between classes and the extra fitness training she was required to take in the month before basic training commenced, and was sweating heavily. Though she had been living on the CHERUB campus for the last three days she was still getting to know her way round and for the third or was it the fourth time that day she found herself in a state of total confusion. She could not for the life of her remember if her room was number twenty-three on the fourth floor or number twenty-three on the third floor.

Deciding that it was probably the third floor she stumbled flight of stairs and still panting from her run opened the door of the room which she thought was hers she was very surprised to find a boy lying on the bed which she thought was hers wearing nothing but boxers and eating a large carton of chocolate ice cream.

"Uhh sorry I think I have the wrong room… Wait is that connoisseur ice cream?" Ebony asked.

"Sure is, want some?" The boy lying on the bed said.

"Ok then" Ebony said nervously, recognising the boy as the one she had seen in the corridor the day she had woken up at CHERUB less then a week ago. There was something about this boy, which Ebony found very attractive. She tried to brush the thoughts aside though – as she knew that James was dating a girl named Kerry, who she had become pretty good friends with during the last couple of days as they where neighbours on the fourth floor.

The boy pulled on a shirt, which looked like it was very dirty and dug up a spoon that didn't looked like it had been washed – ever. However Ebony had not grown up in a household where clean cutlery was an everyday occurrence, her mother had been slightly depressed before she OD on pain killers and often she had found the simple task of cleaning too much to bare. Sam wasn't much of a cleaner either, nor was Ebony so a lot of the time their house had been a complete tip.

"So your Ebony huh? The new kid?" James asked, eyeing Ebony up and down and deciding that his first impressions had been correct she was well fit.

"Yes I'm Ebony, and yeah I'm new, you're James aren't you?"

"That's me, so tell us, how did you end up here.."

"Well….." Ebony started and told him the whole story. After she had finished she found that her eyes had become a bit teary. Ebony was not usually the kind of girl who cried – she was usually a lot tougher then that but the events of the last couple of weeks had been so full of terror and horror that it suddenly became to much for her.

Pushing the ice-cream away James pulled her into a hug. Even though they had only just meet he felt comfortable hugging her, and she didn't feel uncomfortable even though she usually wasn't really much of a cuddly person. Without thinking about what he was doing, James moved in to kiss Ebony, just lightly on the lips. And that was then the door to James's door opened.

"James Adams! You complete pig!" Said a voice.

_Uh Oh! _Thought James. _What's she going to do to me now?_


	8. Call From Her Past

Ebony could just not stop thinking about the events of the day before. She knew that what she and James had done to Kerry was wrong but it seriously wasn't intentional? Ok maybe it was, she could have pulled away when James made a move on her, but something was stopping her, there was something about James, and although she had only just meet him she felt that there was rather a lot of chemistry there already. She just wondered what was going to happen next. Or had happened. According to Gabriella, James and Kerry hadn't spoken since the incident. Ebony sighed. She really had hoped that her coming to CHERUB was a way to start over – it was giving her a second chance in life, but it looked like she had already lost Kerry as a friend.

Ebony had mostly stayed in her room since the incident – missing meal times and collecting food later to be heated up in the microwave. This had been easy to do so far as it had been the weekend but tomorrow was Monday morning and time for classes, just what was she going to do then?

Ebony's train of thought was interrupted by her handler entering the room. Cherry-Anne Longmoore was, like many of the handlers was an ex-Cherub. However she was rather more then your average Cherub. Cherry-Anne was perhaps one of the most famous Cherubs she had been the first female Cherub to ever have been awarded the black shirt. Ebony felt slightly intimidated by her in fact – as in her final mission she had killed five people, in cold blood. She had a certain look about her, a sharp don't mess with me look.

She looked very serious.

"Hi-i-ii" Ebony stumbled on her words. Knowing from the expression on Cherry-Anne's face that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.

"I just got a phone call from the Luton prison." Cherry-Anne informed Ebony, her voice with a sharp cutting edge.

"Oh…" Ebony said guessing at once what was wrong. Sam. Her older brother. In prison. Great.

Ebony thought back to the last time she had seen her brother; it had not been a very pleasant scene. It was when Ebony had been sent back to the children's home to collect her belongings and make a final decision about joining Cherub. Ebony had seen him briefly and it had not exactly been pleasant, considering that he had been completely stoned. Before when their Mum was still alive, Sam it had to be said had taken drugs, just small amounts but after their Mum had died the amounts had been getting increasingly heavy. Ebony was very concerned about where he was going with his life. Ebony had said that she was leaving, in a couple of ours. Sam had been too high to properly acknowledge what she was saying and had laughed at her, and when she had got angry and started screaming that she was going away and probably would never see him again he simply said. "Whoaa sis, wanna free joint or something?"

At this point Ebony had stormed out.

"He was caught dealing drugs wasn't he?" Cherry-Anne nodded her head.

"How long has he got?"

"Well because he is under the age of eighteen he was not charged as an adult and therefore he will be in Juvenal Detention for eight months. Unless of course you want Mack to get bail for him and for him to come and be an agent here at Cherub?"

Ebony thought for a second and then spat at the floor.

"He might be my brother, but he's a complete idiot and I never want to see him ever again." She said, her voice dripping in hatred for her only living relative.

"Are you positive?" Cherry-Anne asked.

"One hundred percent." Ebony hissed.

"Ok then, I will leave you to have a shower and change for dinner."

Ebony waited for her handler to leave the room and then burst into tears. However these tears abruptly stopped when she heard a knock at her door. Not really in the mood for visitors but curious to who it might be she arose from the bed and opened the door.

"James…. Hi…" She said looking around, avoiding his eyes.  
"Can I come in?" He asked sounding a little nervous and un-sure of him.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked, looking shiftily around fully expecting Kerry to emerge from the room next door.

"Look I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry… about you know… and yeah I just really like you and stuff… and I didn't mean to cheat on Kerry like that and I hope I haven't messed up things between you and your new friends here and stuff… and well Kerry and me definitely won't be getting back together…. So I was wondering if maybe you wanted to.. you know… like go out sometime or whatever?"

Ebony was silent for what seemed like an eternity to James. He sighed and headed towards the door, not for the first time and certainly not for the last James Adam's had made a fool of himself in front of a girl.

"James… Wait!" She called out, taking a deep breath in.

"I… I…. I really like you too… it's just I don't know if right now is the best time…"

"Oh…"

"I just.. I just got a call from Luton Prison. My brother's been arrested, Cherub offered to bail him but I said no, I don't want to see him ever again, and I feel terrible."


End file.
